This place is an institution.
I used to eat at Gray Brothers with my grandparents. I used to eat there with my aunts. I used to eat there with The Motterns before I was one.

Obviously I have not eaten there since 1944.

See, how we came to eat at Gray Brothers is because we never eat at Gray Brothers. Two Sundays ago we drove down to Southern Indiana, well I drove down, cause I want always to drive in the daytime, even if there is a snowstorm, light is mo better, and my husband didn’t want us to eat there even though that’s where Aunt Marthanne brought her sugar cream pie…
After I snuck off to eat Swiss cheese, Papaw said The Mister ought to take us to Gray Brothers on the way home and I said, “HE NEVER TAKES ME TO GRAY BROTHERS! I ask him every time, and every time he says no! Twenty years! Not once in twenty years!”
This surprised Papaw and he shook his head.
I KNOW!
It’s a damn shame is what it is.
So when we drove home, well, The Mister drove home, because it was dark, I said to him, “Your dad said you ought to take me to Gray Brothers.”
“Did he now? My dad said that? To YOU?”
“He did. And I told him you never take me.”
“Hmph.”

We stopped at McDon’ts in Spencer, about which I will never complain, Coke Coke.

I asked The Mister, “Don’t you like Gray Brothers? Why you never wanna go?”
“Cause, Baby, I just wanna get home. We will make a special trip next weekend. I will take you then.”
Hurrah!

Now, Imma tell you how it works. You wait in a line. A long, long line. Even if you show up when it’s ‘slow’, y’ain’t walkin in to eat, you walkin in to wait.

You got about 200 feet to wait inside, but on Sunday after church, the line is outside and wraps round the building. We went at 2 on a Saturday and were about 60th.

It doesn’t change.

Okay, the menu changes daily, and you must Google if you wanna be in the know. It’s all good. It is ALL good.

In case you never Googled ‘Hoosier tenderloin’ now I can show you.

It’s bigger than the plate.

But don’t order too much, cause PIE.

The pie! Oh the pie! I declared their lemon meringue pie the best when I was maybe ten. I am unwavering.

LAWD.

Beef n’ noodles, green beans, sage stuffing, half a roll, half a pie, and four glasses of water later, I was bursting.
Between the stuffing and my half a roll, I sopped up every bit of that noodle goo.

Perhaps you need a close-up of the noodle goo.

Mmm, noodle goo. What could be better on a cold winter’s day?

And that’s Gray Brothers.

I didn’t eat the rest of the day… cept PIE. The other half of the best lemon meringue pie ever.

You should eat before you read me, hm? Next week, I may take you to brunch on The Fort. Unless I go someplace more interesting this weekend, which might also include food, because it’s winter in the Midwest and I just want comfort foods and quilts and books and tv and sleeeeep.

54 Responses to #ThursdayDoors — Gray Brothers Cafeteria

You made me smile for many reasons with this post. Good food, especially good pie, always captures my attention. I also have very fond memories of going with some wonderful in-laws to Luby’s Cafeteria in Houston, Texas, every time we visited. From now on, you should stop every trip and just post a tiny photo of the pie you ate at the end of whatever post your writing. We’ll get the message. 🙂

i am on Team Pie when it comes to desert, so this is almost too wonderful for words. This restaurant looks like my childhood revisited– the food and the cafeteria and the doors and the whole shebang. What a fun adventure for you. Not jealous at all.

Oh what a fab place, Joey. With that fire going, it reminds me of a traditional Irish pub here. With such a long waiting line I can see why you haven’t been there before. Honestly, how can you not go back again after that yummy food? Worth the wait, I bet.

Thank you for getting my Thursday off to such a mouth-watering start, Joey. Gray Brothers seems to be the sort of place that Yogi Berra meant when he declared “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

Hurray for noodle goo. You know I don’t think we have reviewed Grey Bros. I have eaten there years ago in my first life but not since. I have got to go to Grey Brothers. I really enjoy cafeterias. Darn those noodles look good. I hope you get to the fort for their Brunch it is wonderful.

Oh my goodness, I want to go. I love noodle goo. I need to ask my wife to make noodle goo. That pie looks so good, but I’d gang up on the noodle and maybe take pie home – you can take pie home, can’t you? What’s the point of having doors if you can’t take pie through them?

Ugh, the idea of waiting in a line like that for the ‘privilege’ of giving someone my money in exchange for food, no matter how good the food may be, is totally NOT happening – except on rare occasions for love..
Awfully pretty doors though and yeah that pie looks delish 😉

Aw. I feel that way about buffets, but not cafeterias. Well, I did love one buffet, but it was trop cher, fine food for foodies and my parents only took me there to celebrate. It closed about 15 years ago. One of my favorite delis in the city is Shapiro’s and it’s a cafeteria. If you’d pass up Shapiro’s or Grays, all I can say is MORE FOR ME! lol

Yeah I can see that. We have a few long-time really famous delis here that people will line up to get into even in winter. If you and the Mr. ever make it to Montreal remind me to take you to Schwartz’s for smoked meat – but we’ll go when I know there’s no line-up 😉

We used to travel over the hill which really are mountains, but we call them hills- to get really good BBQ Tri-tip, but then He-Man bought a gas grill and learned to grill and he does a wonderful Tri-tip himself now so we don’t go out for it anymore.

I would drive 35 miles for good food, but He-Man needs more convincing.

I did eat before reading. I still wanted some. Eating food and being hungry are not always coincidental.
My aunt Lorry always took me to Percy Brown’s when she was in town and I was still a preteen. I can still smell the place, taste lamb with mint jelly; and I can even hear Lorry’s voice and recall her scent. I never was in the place without her. Brown’s and Lorry are both gone, but I remember. Thanks for pinging my memory with yours. And congrats on the coup de Gray.

Badaboooom! How come that McDon’ts are still in business over there, one wonders. Your plate looks exactly like something I’ll order. Sage stuffing! And the yellowness, mmmm. For the pie, I’d probably go for something chocolatey instead, or better, I’d switch that bread for another dessert. Oh yes, I would.

seriously glad I am not hungry seeing this (yes, I thankfully ate before this blog visit)
~ that lemon pie does look like it has the best meringue (can tell from the pics)
~ the place reminds me of a cafeteria in California and they must be doing something right to be in business this long…
~the doors were a nice wood and the way the pictures unfolded was nice from start to finish

Mmmm… This place reminds of a cafeteria that my Papa (grandpa) used to take us to sometimes. I can’t recall the name because it was rare, but I loved walking along and getting to pick out what I wanted from all the tasty choices. 🙂

Oh, Gray Brothers is more’n two hours from my house. ~weeps~ There is, however a cafeteria only about 45 minutes from my house wif pie and stuff. I posted pictures of it one Thursday with a picture of the menu with all the sides. Maybe I’ll talk Charlie into taking me there when the weather gets nicer.

I have never been to Gray’s! Any time I’m in Indy, I’m locked to my location for bidness. On the way, I’m in a hurry to get there and get set up; on the way home, I wanna go hooooommme. Some day, the stars will align.

Hi Jolene,
Greetings from Sydney, Australia. I really enjoyed your post and went and checked out Gray Bros’ website etc. Indeed, I also needed to check out a map of USA to brush up on my geography and see where Indiana is. I was curious about the yellow noodles and what gives them their colour and flavour? I haven’t tried something like that. I’ve really been wanting to try authentic Southern Fried Chicken but there isn’t anywhere local that does it, except of course KFC which isn’t the same. The only thing people queue up for around here is Fish & Chips at Fisherman’s Wharf in nearby Woy Woy. Actually, I just checked them out and they’ve taken a bit of a nose dive. The last couple of times we’ve gone there, the fish and chips were mediocre. It’s awful when a local landmark business throws itself down the gurgler like that.
Hope you have a great week and I’m now feeling hungry. Indeed, not just hungry but in need of good food. I was going through recipe books yesterday trying to get a new repertoire together. We tend to be rather particular.
Best wishes,
Rowena

Hi 🙂 Nice to see you!
The yellow in the noodle sauce is because of the yolks in the noodle and the drippings from the beef. And see, I can’t imagine living without noodles — although more turkey and chicken noodles are cooked at my house. I rarely make egg noodles these days, but there are some dried storebought noodles I like.
We have our share of fish n’ chips here, but I’m sure yours are flavored differently.
Southern fried chicken is all about spice and hot vegetable oil, gettin a good crust on the skin. You can eat good varieties of it all over America, and it’ll taste a bit different but delicious regardless.

Joey, I got quite hungry after reading your post and was reading through a cookbook yesterday trtying to get some new meal ideas. i’m great with baking but get stuck thinking about meals. I get really bad heartburn and reflux and avoid coffee and tomato puree, which can make it more difficult to get meal ideas. Our food in Australia has a strong Asian influence these days. Italian has also left a pretty big mark. lasagna is pretty popular. Our family has roast once a week. It’s so easy. We have a good Asian noodle place down the road, which is really authentic.
Best wishes,
Rowena